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The year 980 CE marks the beginning of the Muslim invasion into India proper when Sabuktagin attacked Raja Jaya Pal in Afghanistan Afghanistan is today a Muslim country separated from India by another Muslim country Pakistan But in 980 CE Afghanistan was also a place where the people were Hindus and Buddhists Wisdom courtesy Subodh Kapoor The name Afghanistan comes from UpaGanastan which means in Sanskrit the place inhabited by allied tribes This was the place from where Gandhari of the Mahabharat came from Gandhar whose king was Shakuni Today the city of Gandhar is known as Kandahar The Pakthoons are descendants of the Paktha tribe mentioned in Vedic literature Till the year 980 CE this area was a Hindu majority area till Sabuktagin from Ghazni invaded it and displaced the ruling Hindu king Jaya Pal Shahi Shiva worship was widespread in Afghanistan There was a time when the entire region was replete with hundreds of Shiva temples celebrating Shiva Parvati worship and abuzz with Shiv chants prayers legends and worship Archaeological excavations in this region conducted by Sir Estine an East India Company official led to the recovery of uncountable shrines and inscriptions He has authored four books on that topic featuring photos of icons icons and inscriptions discovered The photos show a sun temple and a Ganesha statue too An Islamabad University professor Abdul Rehman has authored two books on those finds recalling the glory and prosperity of those timesRegimes of two Hindu rulers Kusham and Kidara lasted for fairly long periods During their rule a number of Shiva temples were not only in Afghanistan but in other West Asian regions too Uzbekistan and Takzikistan formed part of the Afghan kingdom in those times Tashkent has one of those ancient Shiva temples standing even todayProfessor Abdul Rehman states that Bukhara region Was known as Shah Vihar in ancient times It was ruled by an Hindu king When Arabs invaded that kingdom its queen traveled to Kashmir to seek military help Arab chronicles mention her as Khatoon meaning Woman Kalhan the ancient Hindu historian of Kashmir has mentioned that the army of the then Hindu ruler of Kashmir had a battle with a vast army of the Arab Khalifa Mamoon whose headquarters was Baghdad At that time Bukhara had been under Muslim rule He had invited a number of leading Hindu experts to Baghdad An Ayurvedic practitioner of Varansi alias Benares had treated the Khalifa for some ailment afflicting the latter In those days it was Hindu Ayurvedic practitioners who were eagerly sought by Arab patients A number of Arabs had translated Sanskrit Ayurvedic texts into Arabic A list of those translated Sanskrit texts appears in a Volume known as al Frisht Baku capital of the Azerbaijan region known for its underground petroleum yields has still an ancient Hindu temple of the Divine Flame generated by the subterranean petrol and gas During the Czar regimes in Russia a Punjabi priest officiated at that temple The walls display some religious stanzas written in Punjabi Gurumakhi script The market there also had Hindu merchants Nearby was a locality too of Hindu inhabitants Baku in Azerbaijani language actually signifies a Goddess Therefore obviously Baku derives its name from a very ancient Vedic Goddess temple thereKenduj a province of Afghanistan was ruled by a king that had a Hindu prime minister This is mentioned in history books Albirruni s travel account contains details of ancient Hindu Afghanistan He mentions a Hindu king Khingla whose coins bore the imprint of Shiva The first ruler of that dynasty was Viahitagni History mentions a Shiva temple in Gardej township which was plundered by Arab invaders Khingla dynasty ruled the region from 666 to 843 AD From 843 to 850 AD a Brahmin Minister ruled the region The Kalkaa community of Brahmins had acquired prominence in those times They were later known as Kallers A township of that name exists in Punjab Prominent among them who find a mention in later history are Samantdev Bheemdev Jaipaldev Anandpal and Trilochan Jaipaldev suffered a defeat in 1002 when Mohammed Ganzavi invaded India Unable to bear that defeat Jaipaldev committed suicide When Hs antsang visited the region early in the 7th century CE the Kabul valley region was ruled by a Hindu Kshatriya king who is identified as the Shahi Khingal and whose name has been found in an inscription found in GardezThe Hindu Shahi kings of Kabul and Gandhara may have had links to some ruling families in neighboring Kashmir and other areas to the east The place where Kabuls main mosque stands today was the site of an ancient Hindu temple and the story of its capture is kept alive in Islamic Afghan legend which describes the Islamic hero Sabuktagin who fought with a sword in every hand to defeat the Hindus and destroy their temple to put up a Mosque in its placeThe victory of Sabuktagin pushed the frontiers of the Hindu kingdom of the Shahis from Kabul to behind the Hindu Kush mountains Hindu Kush is literally killer of Hindus a name given by Mahmud Ghazni to describe the number of Hindus who died on their way into Afghanistan to a life of captivity After this setback the Shahis shifted their capital from Kubha Kabul to Udbhandapura modern Und in NWFP Sabuktagins son Mahmud Ghazni kept up the attacks on the Shahis and captured Und Subsequently the Shahis moved their capital to Lahore and later to Kangra in Himachal The recovery and significance of the inscription telling a story of the Hindu ruler Veka and his devotion to lord Shiva was told by leading epigraphist and archaeologist Prof Ahmad Hasan Dani of the QuaidEAzam University of Islamabad at the Indian History CongressAs per Prof Ahmad Hasan The date of 138 of present inscription should be equal to 959 AD which falls during the reign of Bhimapala Dani said in a paper Mazari Sharif inscription of the time of the Shahi ruler Veka dated the year 138 The inscription with eleven lines written in western Sarada style of Sanskrit of 10th century AD had several spelling mistakes As the stone is slightly broken at the top left corner the first letter OM is missing he saidAccording to the inscription the ruler Veka occupied by eightfold forces the earth the markets and the forts It is during his reign that a temple of Shiva in the embrace with Uma was built at Maityasya by Parimaha great Maitya for the benefit of himself and his son Dani said the inscription gives the name of the king as Shahi Veka Raja and bestows on him the qualification of Iryatumatu Ksanginanka and he appears to be the same king who bears the name of Khingila or Khinkhila who should be accepted as a Shahi rulerDani further said he may be an ancestor of Veka deva As his coins are found in Afghanistan and he is mentioned by the Arab ruler Yaqubi he may be an immediate predecessor of Veka deva Both the evidences of inscription and coins suggest that Veka or Vaka should be accepted as an independent ruler of northern Afghanistan Thus we find another branch of the Shahi ruler in northern part of Afghanistan beyond the Hindukush Veka is said to have conquered the earth the markets and the forts by his eightfold forces suggesting that he must have himself gained success against the Arab rulers of southern Afghanistan Dani observed that going by the findings it seemed that during the rule of the Hindu Shahi ruler Bhimapala there was a break in the dynasty one branch headed by Jayapala ruled in Lamaghan and Punjab and another branch headed by Veka ruled in northern part of Afghanistan The northern branch must have come to an end by the conquest of Alptigin in the second half of tenth century AD he saidIndia has developed a highly constructive imaginative reconstruction strategy for Afghanistan that is designed to please every sector of Afghan society give India a high profile with the Afghan people gain the maximum political advantage with the Afghan government increase its influence with its Northern Alliance friends and turn its image from that of a country that supported the Soviet invasion and the communist regime in the 1980s to an indispensable ally and friend of the Afghan people in the new century This article is highly shared on social media platforms such as Facebook and is also published on wwwindiadivineorg

Somnath literally translated as the Lord of Moon Soma houses the first of the 12 Jyotirlingas or the symbolic representation of Lord Shiva The history of this temple is a highly troubled one as it was looted and destroyed as many as 17 times and was reconstructed every time This highly famed pilgrim destination is located at the Viraval Port or Prabhas Pattan in Saurashtra GujratAlso known as Prabhasa Kshetra Somnath temple has been enjoying a highly esteemed place in the Indian history This temple is widely referred to in the puranas and epics There were invaluable gemstones fixed in different places of the sanctum that kept the place lustrous all the time Kannauji attar was specially used to burn the lamp round the clockThe temple treasury was overflowing with a vast amount of treasure all the time Every day sandal wood scented water was brought from Haridwar Prayag Kashi for bathing the idol and the flowers were brought from Kashmir For daily worship there were 1 000 priests appointed and 350 dancing girls performed traditional dance to engage the LordThe produce of ten thousand villages was completely allotted to support the temple worship The Swayambu or self born deity of this temple has been attracting millions down the history and the contributions and donations made by these fervent people were in crores that had kept the temple ever affluent and abundant Beyond this the Parsis or the Sun worshippers donated a considerable segment of their profits to the temple that filled its coffers all the timeThe puranic story says Chndra or moon god who was married to the twenty seven daughters of Daksha was partial to the youngest one known as Rohini When all the repeated warnings to change his attitude failed Daksha cursed Chandra that he would wane away in size Advised by Brahma Chandra undertook a severe penance at this holy site to absolve from the curse he sufferedLord Shiva changed the curse to waxing and waning once a month In his gratitude to the Lord Chandra built a golden temple and installed a Jyotirlinga in it The holy tank of this temple is known to remedy several illnesses and sinsSomnath was attacked by the Muslims several times In 722 Junamad the Sindh Subedar invaded it and plundered so much of its wealth In 1025 AD Ghajni Mohammed destroyed the statue of this temple and looted the wealth amounting to 18 coresThe history of continuous plundering and destroying lists attack by Allauddin Khilji in 1297 AD Mohammed Begeda in 1479 Mujaffar Shah II in 1503 and finally by Aurangazeb in 1701 which was the worst of all attacks when a great wealth was stolen and a large number of people were killedA new temple for Shiva was built on its ruins in 1783 AD by Sadhvi Alalya devi Holkar a great devotee of Siva After independence the credit of renovating Somnath temple to its present glory goes to the lion of Gujarat Sardar Vallabhai Patel who acted on the advice of Kakashaheb Gadgil of MaharashtraThe Jyotirlinga was reinstalled once again Friday the 11th May 1951 at 946 AM by the then president of India Honourable Dr Babu Rajendra Prasad in a very grand ceremony

You may find it hard to believe but dreams have been responsible for some major creative and scientific discoveries in the course of human history Here are 10 remarkable dreams of some of the worlds most prominent scientists writers musicians mathematicians and inventors whose moments of dream insight went down on record Paul McCartneyIn 1965 Paul McCartney composed the entire melody for the hit acoustic song Yesterday in a dream It came back to him fully formed when he woke up and he quickly replicated the song on his piano asking his friends and family if theyd ever heard it before He was initially worried that he was simply replicating someone elses work known as cryptomnesia For about a month I went round to people in the music business and asked them whether they had ever heard it before Eventually it became like handing something in to the police I thought if noone claimed it after a few weeks then I could have it Lennon and McCartney then wrote lyrics to the melody and the song was credited to LennonMcCartney on their album Help The father of quantum mechanics Niels Bohr often spoke of the inspirational dream that led to his discovery of the structure of the atom The son of academic parents Bohr got his doctorate in 1911 and gained notoriety for deciphering complex problems in the world of physics that had left his colleagues stumped In time he set upon understanding the structure of the atom but none of his configurations would fit One night he went to sleep and began dreaming about atoms He saw the nucleus of the atom with electrons spinning around it much as planets spin around their sun Immediately on awakening Bohr felt the vision was accurate But as a scientist he knew the importance of validating his idea before announcing it to the world He returned to his lab and searched for evidence to support his theory Bohrs vision of atomic structure turned out to be one of the greatest breakthroughs of his day Bohr was later awarded a Nobel Prize for Physics as a result of this leap in creative thinking while asleep In 1845 Howe invented the sewing machine based on a famous dream that helped him understand the mechanical penetration of the needle He was not the first to conceive the idea of a sewing machine however Howe made significant refinements to the design and was awarded the first US patent for a sewing machine using a lockstitch design He almost beggared himself before he discovered where the eye of the needle of the sewing machine should be located he might have failed altogether if he had not dreamed he was building a sewing machine for a savage king in a strange country He thought the king gave him twentyfour hours in which to complete the machine and make it sew If not finished in that time death was to be the punishment Howeln worked and worked and puzzled and finally gave it up Then he thought he was taken out to be executed He noticed that the warriors carried spears that were pierced near the head Instantly came the solution of the difficulty and while the inventor was begging for time he awoke It was 4 oclock in the morning He jumped out of bed and by 9 a needle with an eye at the point had been rudely modeled Einstein is famous for his genius insights into the nature of the universe but what about his dreams As it happens he came to the extraordinary scientific achievement discovering the principle of relativity after having a vivid dream As a young man Einstein dreamed he was sledding down a steep mountainside going so fast that eventually he approached the speed of light As this moment the stars in his dream changed their appearance in relation to him He awoke and meditated on this idea soon formulating what would become one of the most famous scientific theories in the history of mankind Einsteins Dreams by Alan Lightman is now a modern classic a fictional collage of stories dreamed by Albert Einstein in 1905 on the brink of his breakthrough discoveries In one time is circular so that people are fated to repeat their triumphs and failures over and over In another time stands still where lovers cling together in eternity The mathematical genius made substantial contributions to analytical theory of numbers elliptical functions continued fractions and infinite series and proved more than 3 000 mathematical theorems in his lifetime Ramanujan said that throughout his life he repeatedly dreamed of a Hindu goddess known as Namakkal She presented him with complex mathematical formulas over and over which he could then test and verify upon waking Once such example was the infinite series for Pi Ramanujan said While asleep I had an unusual experience There was a red screen formed by flowing blood as it were I was observing it Suddenly a hand began to write on the screen I became all attention That hand wrote a number of results in elliptic integrals They stuck to my mind As soon as I woke up I committed them to writing In 1886 Stevenson dreamed up three key sequences from the infamous fantasy thriller novel The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde A sick man for most of his life he wrote mainly to support his family Until that was it came to the inception of Jekyll Hyde For two days I went about racking my brains for a plot of any sort and on the second night I dreamed the scene at the window and a scene afterward split in two in which Hyde pursued for some crime took the powder and underwent the change in the presence of his pursuers While recovering in bed from a hemorrhage Fanny Stevenson heard his screams He promptly awoke and complained Why did you wake me I was dreaming a fine bogey tale The next morning Stevenson began scribbling furiously and three days later he had written a 30 000word draft For a further three days his family tiptoed around him while he sat in bed writing surrounded by torn up pages until at last the final draft was ready In all he wrote 64 000 words in six days some kind of miracle in his time without typewriters or computer power to speak of Otto Loewi was a Germanborn pharmacologist whose discovery of acetylcholine ironically a neurotransmitter which promotes dreaming helped advance medical therapy The discovery earned him Nobel Prize 13 years later However he is almost as famous for the means by which he discovered it as he is for the discovery itself In 1921 Loewi dreamed of an experiment that would prove once and for all that transmission of nerve impulses was chemical not electrical He woke up scribbled the experiment down and went back to sleep The day he said was the longest day of his life as he tried but failed to recall his dream The following night however he had the same dream repeat itself and upon awakening went directly to his lab to prove the Noble Prizewinning theory Mary ShelleyIn the story of Frankenstein often cited as the worlds first science fiction novel was inspired by a vivid nightmare At just 18 years old Shelley visited Lord Byron They were locked in a cold volcanic winter caused by the eruption of Mount Tambora Stuck indoors and huddled around a log fire Byron suggested they each write a ghost story but night after night Shelley was unable to think of anything suitable Then one evening when discussion turned to the nature of life Shelley suggested perhaps a corpse could be reanimated backed by the thought that galvanism had given token of such things Later that night after turning in her imagination took hold and she experienced what she described as a vivid waking dream I saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out and then on the working of some powerful engine show signs of life and stir with an uneasy half vital motion Frightful must it be for supremely frightful would be the effect of any human endeavour to mock the stupendous mechanism of the Creator of the world After his mother passed away from diabetes Frederick Banting was motivated to find a cure Eventually he found the next best thing a treatment using insulin injections which though not a true cure could at least significantly extend the lifespan of sufferers The discovery won him a Nobel Prize in Medicine at just 32 years old This breakthrough lead to another dream that revealed how to develop insulin as a drug to treat the condition

It will always be something of an exercise in subjectivity to determine which genocides were the worst as how does one go about measuring such a thing Nevertheless this list shows the worst side of humanity Proceed at your own discretion Here are the 25 most horrific massacres in the history of mankind On 13 April 1919 a crowd of nonviolent protesters along with Baishakhi pilgrims had gathered in the Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar Punjab to protest against the arrest of two leaders despite a curfew which had been recently declared On the orders of General Reginald Dyer the army fired on the crowd for ten minutes The casualty number estimated by the Indian National Congress was more than 1 500 with approximately 1 000 dead One of the earliest recorded largescale massacres in world history happened in the year 390 when Roman Emperor Theodosius I sent troops to Thessalonica in order to quell some civil unrest Apparently he was very angry when he gave them their initial instructions because he almost immediately dispatched a messenger telling the troops to disregard his previous orders The messenger however arrived too late and 7 000 innocent men women and children had already been murdered On December 30 1066 Muslim mobs stormed the royal palace where Jewish vizier Joseph ibn Naghrela had sought refuge and crucified him In the ensuing massacre of the Jewish population many of the Jews of Granada were murdered The massacre was apparently started by a rumor that Joseph was going to have the Muslim king assassinated The Massacre of the Latins was a largescale massacre of the Roman Catholic or Latin inhabitants of Constantinople the capital of the Byzantine Empire by the Eastern Orthodox population of the city in May 1182 The Roman Catholics of Constantinople at that time dominated the city s maritime trade and financial sector Although precise numbers are unavailable the bulk of the Latin community estimated at over 60 000 at the time was wiped out or forced to flee The St Bartholomew s Day massacre in 1572 was a targeted group of assassinations followed by a wave of Roman Catholic mob violence both directed against the Huguenots French Calvinist Protestants during the French Wars of Religion Modern estimates for the number of dead vary widely from 5 000 to 30 000 Also known as the Storming of Bolton this was an episode in the English Civil War when Royalist forces led by Prince Rupert of the Rhine stormed and captured the Parliamentarian town of Bolton on May 28 1644 A staple in the Parliamentarian propaganda it resulted in the death of 1 600 defenders and innocent inhabitants The atrocities that happened on May 20 1645 against the local residents of Yangzhou China by the Qing troops led by Prince Dodo of the Qing Dynasty had led to the death of as many as 80 000 people After their recent success against the forces loyal to the Southern Ming regime of the Hongguang Emperor they plundered the city for ten days to punish the residents for their resistance and as a warning to the population of Jiangnan on the consequences of resisting invaders The September Massacres were a wave of mob violence which overtook Paris in late summer 1792 during the French Revolution By the time it had subsided half the prison population of Paris had been executed some 1 200 trapped prisoners including many women and young boys Sporadic violence in particular against the Roman Catholic Church would continue throughout France for nearly a decade to come Also known as the 1842 retreat from Kabul the massacre which happened during the First AngloAfghan War occurred when Major General Sir William Elphinstone attempted to lead a military and civilian column of Europeans and Indians from Kabul back to Jalalabad Afghan tribes launched numerous attacks against the column as it made slow progress through the winter snows of the Hindu Kush The massacre of the Bulgarians in Batak by 8 000 Ottoman troops on April 30 1876 at the beginning of the April Uprising was described as the most heinous crime to stain the history of the 19th century Although at 15 000 dead the total number of people killed was less than some of the other massacres on this list the brutality was unparalleled The majority of those killed were women and children who were raped tortured and then beheaded Also known as the Armenian Massacres of 1894 1896 and the Great Massacres these atrocities were once again committed by the Ottoman Empire The deaths ranged from 80 000 to 300 000 leaving at least 50 000 children orphaned The massacres were due to Ottoman Empire seeking to establish its territorial authority and to reassert PanIslamism as the state ideology Also known as the Moro Crater Massacre the violence committed against the Moro villagers in the Philippines by a naval detachment of 540 American soldiers during the PhilippineAmerican War was another relatively small massacre compared to some others on this list roughly 1 000 casualties but it is certainly one of the worst attacks ever perpetrated by a democraticallyinclined modern government This 1909 massacre of Armenian Christians by Ottoman Turks in the city of Adana amidst governmental upheaval resulted in a series of antiArmenian mob violence throughout the district Reports estimated that the massacres in Adana Province resulted in 15 000 to 30 000 deaths The Nanking Massacre also known as the Rape of Nanking was a mass murder that occurred during the sixweek period following the Japanese capture of the city of Nanking Nanjing the former capital of China on December 13 1937 during the Second SinoJapanese War During this period hundreds of thousands of Chinese civilians and disarmed soldiers were murdered by soldiers of the Imperial Japanese Army Widespread rape and looting also occurred Historians and witnesses have estimated that 250 000 to 300 000 people were killed Also known as the Katyn Forest Massacre this mass execution ordered by the Soviet Politburo on March 5 1940 was carried out by the secret police against Polish military officers civilian prisoners and members of the Polish Officer Corps Approved by Joseph Stalin it was estimated that about 22 000 were executed in Katyn Forest The NKVD prisoner massacres were a series of mass executions committed by the Soviet NKVD against prisoners in Eastern Europe primarily Poland Ukraine the Baltic states Bessarabia and other parts of the Soviet Union from which the Red Army was withdrawing after the German invasion in 1941 see Operation Barbarossa Estimates on the death toll vary from nearly 9000 to 100 000 Considered the largest single massacre in the history of the Holocaust this atrocity happened in a ravine near Kiev Ukraine from September 29 to 30 1941 wherein 33 771 Jews were executed by the Nazis during their campaign against the Soviet Union Victims of other Babi Yar massacres included tens of thousands of Soviet POWs Gypsies Romani people communists civilian hostages and Ukrainian nationalists The mass murder of Jews in Odessa Ukraine and the surrounding towns of Transnistria by the Romanian invaders resulted in the deaths of more than 100 000 Ukrainian Jews with any survivors being left to freeze outdoors after their village was completely razed This genocide operation against the Polish population of Volhynia Ukraine was carried out by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army UPAin March 1943 Its aim was to exterminate all Polish males between the ages of 16 and 60 Tens of thousands of women and children were killed too however During the Warsaw Uprising a systematic killing of some 40 000 to 50 000 Polish civilians and captured resistance fighters was carried out by the Nazi German troops from August 5 to 12 1944 The victims were indiscriminately shot or killed in an organized mass murder throughout the Wola district the capital of Warsaw Poland These atrocities were committed to crush the Poles spirit and to end the uprising without resorting to heavy cityfighting but ended up only stiffening the resistance Also known as the 228 Massacre this happened due to an antigovernment uprising in Taiwan which was violently suppressed by government troops on February 27 1947 The number 228 came from the following day February 28 when 30 000 civilians were massacred in what came to be known as the White Terror The Jeju Uprising was a revolt on Jeju island off the south coast of the Korean Peninsula beginning on April 3 1948 Between 14 000 and 60 000 individuals were killed in fighting or execution between various factions on the island The brutal suppression of this rebellion by the South Korean army resulted in tens of thousands of deaths the destruction of many villages on the island and sparking rebellions on the Korean mainland The Bodo League massacre was a massacre and war crime against communists and suspected sympathizers that occurred in the summer of 1950 during the Korean War Estimates of the death toll vary but most experts agree it was somewhere between 100 000 and 200 000 The Hue Massacre is the name given to the summary executions and mass killings perpetrated by the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army during their capture occupation and later withdrawal from the city of Hue during the Tet Offensive considered one of the longest and bloodiest battles of the Vietnam War During the years that followed the Battle of Hue dozens of mass graves were discovered and the estimated death toll was roughly 6 000 Victims were found bound tortured and sometimes apparently buried alive This scorched earth operation was carried out by the Syrian Arab Army against the town of Hama to stop the uprising of the Muslim Brotherhood in February 1982 Estimates of the death toll range from 7 000 to 35 000 and it has been described as one of the single deadliest acts by an Arab government against its own people in the modern Middle East

Shiva Lingam is the anionic representation of the Supreme Godhead Explained as Sat Chit and Ananda The eternal truth the eternal consciousness and eternal bliss Lingam is described in the agamas as denoting the three principles of Godhead namely creation sustenance and destruction Brahma Vishnu and Shiva all in one piecePerhaps the most famous object of worship in the Hinduism Shiva Lingam is a symbolic representation of the eternal cosmic energy Here is the origin and history of Shiva Lingam from different sourcesThe term Lingam is composed of two syllables namely Ling to dissolve and ga to emerge thus representing the cosmic principle that is responsible for creation as well as destruction Lingam is often associated with the primordial matter that sprung forth into the universe Big Bang TheoryThe story narrated in Kurma Purana Vayu Purana and Shiva Purana talk of the two gods Vishnu and Brahma debating on a Shivratri day as to who was the most powerful one among them At that time a huge pillar appeared in front of themBoth of them failed to discover its origin and end and were thus humbled and made to accept the supremacy of Shiva the supreme one This blazing pillar of fire came to be worshiped as the aniconic form of ShivaAtharvana Veda talks of a sacrificial post called Yupa Stambha which is described as the symbol of Brahman the absolute principle In the Paris Congress of the History of Religions in 1900 Swami Vivekananda identified this concept of Yupa Stambha as the source of Shiva Lingam s originThe Linga Purana says Lingam is the total symbolic representation of the formless universe bearer with the oval shaped stone denoting the visible creation or the conspicuous universe with its base denoting the supreme power holding of supporting the entire universeSkanda Purana says Lingam is the endless sky that contains the whole universe After the dissolution all the created things shall dissolve and merge back into this Shiva LingamShiva Purana says Shiva Lingam is the formless representation of Shiva the destroyer of the Hindu triad and regarded as the supreme principleIn two places in the Himalayan Mountains we come across naturally occurring Lingams Amarnath is the most famed pilgrim site that attracts millions of devotees throughout the world A cave in Amarnath houses the naturally forming Shiva Lingam during every winter season Called as Ice Lingam this structure forms when the ice dripping from the cave top becomes a stalagmite after freezingIn the Garhwal region of Himalayas in Uttarakhand there is a Shiva Lingam shaped mountain of 6543 meters tall which is again a popularly visited pilgrimage siteBana Lingams are the Swayambu or naturally formed Shiva Lingams shaped by the Narmada River in the Central Western part of India Also called as Narmada Banalinga or Narmadeshwar Shiva Lingams these elliptical stone like formations are made of Crypto Crystalline Quartz a Gemstone material called Chalcedony Basalt and Agate with a hardness of 7 on the Moe s Scale which is one of the hardest stones available on the earthMythology says these Lingams are formed when the arrow from Shiva s bow shattered the three flying cities of Tripurasuras Geology says these stones were formed 14 million years ago when a meteorite struck the earth at this region

Jerusalem temple has a very long history stretching far back into the pre Christian era The very long historic dispute of whether a holy Israelite temple existed at the site is still unresolved between Palestinians and IsraelisHowever evidences from history strongly point out that the site that the Jews call as Temple Mount and the Muslims call as Haram alSharif is the most sacred place in Judaism Islam and Christianity and this is where both the first and the second temples stoodWe learn from the New Testament that a number of memorable incidents in the life of Jesus Christ happened within the portals of the Second Temple There are references in the Koran about the holiness of the Mound on which the Jerusalem temple stood Notably this is also the place from where the Prophet Mohammed commenced his Night Journey to Heaven 7th centuryIt is said the First Temple was built was a threshing floor connected to Moriah where Abraham prepared to sacrifice his son Isaac The Bible refers to this place as Zion and later this term came to refer to the whole of Israel Thus all these three religions share a high view of the location where the Jerusalem temple was builtThe First Temple was constructed at Jerusalem in 10th century BC by King Solomon as noted in the Hebrew Bible The temple was intended to house the Ark of the Covenant Aron Habrit that supported the stone tablets of the law that Moses got on Mt Sinai and transported with the Israelites during their journey into the desertIn 720 BC Israel was conquered and from thereon the Jerusalem temple built by Solomon sustained several attacks In 586 BC it was fully destroyed by the army of Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar The Jews were sent in exile and after the fall of Babylon they were invited once again by Cyrus the Persian emperor and in 515 BC the temple was rebuilt which was the precursor to the Herod s templeHerod the Romanappointed king of Judea constructed the Second Temple known as the Herod s Temple which was completed in 20 BC This magnanimous structure did not thrive even for a century During the first Jewish revolt around 70 CE Titus the Roman General who later became the emperor looted the temple and leveled it to the groundFollowing the destruction of the Second Temple the Jerusalem temple lays in ruins to this day showing up only a few walls including the famous wailing wall of the destroyed temple and the foundation Prophecies made from time to time in history are quoted by the Jews who say the Third Temple has been foreseen centuries backSince 1987 the Temple Institute in Jerusalem has been vigorously working out its way forward since 1987 to build the Third Temple The time has to answer whether the efforts shall fructify Amidst the tough political and religious challenges ahead the Jewish mission to build the Third Temple is slowly unfolding

History is the study of the past particularly how it relates to humans It is an umbrella term that relates to past events as well as the memory discovery collection organization presentation and interpretation of information about these events Scholars who write about history are called historians Events occurring prior to written record are considered prehistoryHistory can also refer to the academic discipline which uses a narrative to examine and analyse a sequence of past events and objectively determine the patterns of cause and effect that determine them56 Historians sometimes debate the nature of history and its usefulness by discussing the study of the discipline as an end in itself and as a way of providing perspective on the problems of the present5789Stories common to a particular culture but not supported by external sources such as the tales surrounding King Arthur are usually classified as cultural heritage or legends because they do not show the disinterested investigation required of the discipline of history1011 Herodotus a 5thcentury BC Greek historian is considered within the Western tradition to be the father of history and along with his contemporary Thucydides helped form the foundations for the modern study of human history Their works continue to be read today and the gap between the culturefocused Herodotus and the militaryfocused Thucydides remains a point of contention or approach in modern historical writing In Asia a state chronicle the Spring and Autumn Annals was known to be compiled from as early as 722 BC although only 2nd century BC texts survivedAncient influences have helped spawn variant interpretations of the nature of history which have evolved over the centuries and continue to change today The modern study of history is wideranging and includes the study of specific regions and the study of certain topical or thematical elements of historical investigation Often history is taught as part of primary and secondary education and the academic study of history is a major discipline in university studies

History from Greek historia meaning inquiry knowledge acquired by investigation2 is the study of the past particularly how it relates to humans34 It is an umbrella term that relates to past events as well as the memory discovery collection organization presentation and interpretation of information about these events Scholars who write about history are called historians Events occurring before written record are considered prehistoryHistory can also refer to the academic discipline which uses a narrative to examine and analyse a sequence of past events and objectively determine the patterns of cause and effect that determine them56 Historians sometimes debate the nature of history and its usefulness by discussing the study of the discipline as an end in itself and as a way of providing perspective on the problems of the present

Puranic stories of Vijayawada narrates that the department of archeology discovered prehistoric remains belonging to the stoneage man all along the banks of the river from Machilipatnam to Nagarjuna Sagar thus prooving the life of stone age man in the river valleys of VijayawadaThe Place of Victory which is the literal meaning of Vijayawada has a legend behind its name It is believed that Vijayawada was established by Arjuna around the Malleswara temple and Indrakiladri hills in commemoration of Lord Shivas Darsan he had Also from history we get to know that this region was ruled by the Chalukyas of Kalyan and the great king Krishna Deva Raya for a very long period influencing the cutlure and society of the city There are records showing which says that Vijayawada was also visited by foreign travellers like HuyanTsang

f the worlds major religions namely Hinduism Buddhism Jainism andSikhism Throughout Indias history religion has been an important part of the countrys culture Religious diversity and religious tolerance are both established in the country by the law andcustomAccording to the 2001 census 805 of the population of India practise Hinduism Islam134 Christianity 2 3 Sikhism 19 Buddhism 08 and Jainism 04 are the other major religions followed by the people of India There are also numerous minor tribal traditions though these have been affected by major religions such as Hinduism Buddhism and ChristianityThe amount of diversity in the religious belief systems of India today is a result of both the existence of many native religions and also the assimilation and social integration of religions brought to the region by travellers immigrants traders and even invaders and conquerors such as the MughalsZoroastrianism and Judaism also have an ancient history in India and each has several thousands of Indian adherents India has the largest population of people adhering to Zoroastrianism ie Parsis and Iranis and Bah Faith in the world even though these religions are not native to India Many other world religions also have a relationship with Indian spirituality such as the Bahai faith which recognises Buddha and Krishna as manifestations of the God AlmightyThe Indian diaspora in the West has popularised many aspects of Hindu philosophy such as yoga meditation Ayurvedic medicine divination karma and reincarnation The influence of Indian religions has been significant all over the world Several organisations such as the Hare Krishna movement the Brahma Kumaris the Ananda Marga and others have spread Indian spiritual beliefs and practicesThe Muslim population of India is the third largest in the world India also has the third largest Shia population in the world The shrines of some of the most famous saints ofSufism like Moinuddin Chishti and Nizamuddin Auliya are found in India and attract visitors from all over the world India is also home to some of the most famous monuments of Islamic architecture such as the Taj Mahal and the Qutb Minar Civil matters related to the community are dealt with by the Muslim Personal Law an

Manchester United was formed in 1878 as Newton Heath LYR Football Club by the Carriage and Wagon department of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway LYR depot atNewton Heath15 The team initially played games against other departments and rail companies but on 20 November 1880 they competed in their first recorded match wearing the colours of the railway company green and gold they were defeated 6 0 by Bolton Wanderers39 reserve team16 By 1888 the club had become a founding member of The Combination a regional football league Following the league39s dissolution after only one season Newton Heath joined the newly formed Football Alliance which ran for three seasons before being merged with the Football League This resulted in the club starting the 1892 93 season in the First Division by which time it had become independent of the rail company and dropped the LYR from its name15 After two seasons the club was relegated to the Second Division15

Contemporaries referred to the empire founded by Babur as the Timurid empire 29 which reflected the heritage of his dynasty and was the term preferred by the Mughals themselves30 Another name was Hindustan which was documented in the AiniAkbari and which has been described as the closest to an official name for the empire31 In the west the term Mughal was used for the emperor and by extension the empire as a whole32 The use of Mughal deriving from the Arabic and Persian corruption of Mongol and emphasising the Mongol origins of the Timurid dynasty 33 gained currency during the nineteenth century but remains disputed byIndologists34 Babur39s ancestors were sharply distinguished from the classical Mongols insofar as they were oriented towards Persian rather than TurkoMongolculture35

According to many sources Nihari originated in Old Delhi Jama Masjid and Daryaganj areas in the late eighteenth century during the last throes of the Mughal Empire The Muslim Nawab ate Nihari early in the morning after Fajr prayers and then took a long nap before going to Zhuhr afternoon Muslim prayers Later on it became popular among the labor class as a regular breakfast itemAnother story reveals that Nihari was cooked overnight in large volume to be served to the labourers Whenever there were massive constructions involved and the kings served meals free to labour and also paid them In some instances kings did not want to offer coins currencies they in turn offered free meals and accommodations to the labourers Since the work had to be started in the morning it was cooked in anearthern pot sometimes even buried and served in the morning to ensure the supply of energetic labour forceAlternative origins puts roots in the Muslim Nawab kitchens having achieved

Hindu History History with its flickering lamp Stumbles along the trail of the past Trying to reconstruct its scenes to revive its echoes And rekindle with pale gleams the passion of former daysNowhere is this observation more true than in the case of Hindu History In tracing the roots of this ancient religion we find ourselves floundering in the mists of time as there are few archeological evidences remaining that can corroborate the legends described in our ancientPuraans Ancient Map of India The many facets of Indian history mirror the Geographical Racial Linguistic and Cultural complexities of the vast Indian subcontinent and as such are not very easy to decipher However it is abundantly clear that the chain of events extends way back into the prehistoric timesThat the Early Man was present and thriving in the Indian heartland is evident from the Cavepaintings of Bhimbetka in Madhya Pradesh These paintings date from 40 000 BCE earlier known as BC and show the antiquity of human existence in this part of the world Prehistoric paintings from Bhimbetka CavesA large amount of information is available through literary evidence of the Hindu Vedas Persian Avesta regional literature and assorted accounts of travelers from both East and West throwing ample light on different aspects of early Hindu civilizationThrough the analysis of these literary masterpieces and corroborating them with the evidence unearthed in recent excavations from Rajasthan and Gujarat in India and the Northwestern region of Pakistan have pushed back origins of ancient Indian civilization by at least three millenia more Earliest sites of Civilization in the Indian subcontinent While the protocities excavated in Mehrgarh have been dated to around 6500 BCE discoveries in the Gulf of Cambay off the coast of Gujarat where the fabled city ofDwarka was located have revealed dates corresponding to 7500 BCE which is older than ANY other civilization in the World The 39Discovery39 of Saraswati the most glorified river in the Vedas has given a huge boost to the efforts of finding a common ground between Hindu History and Mythology The oft mentioned and much extolled river of ancient Hindu texts was ironically not to be seen at all in modern India and this had placed a great burden on scholars who endeavored to analyze the sacred texts from a historical viewpoint The Original course of Saraswati However recent research carried out by international archaeologists has shed a great deal of light on the origin course and final disappearance of the mighty river referred to as the 39Mother of all rivers39 in the Rigveda and can even help date the scriptures to a large extentIn the article titled The Riddle of India39s Ancient Past the French protohistorianMichel Danino believes there are strong links between the Veda and the Harappan culture 39We find statues and seals depicting yogis and yogic postures we find a Shivalike deity worship of a mothergoddess fire altars all of which are suggestive of Vedic culture Harappan symbols include the Trishul the Swastika the Conch shell the Peepal tree all of which are central to later Indian culture The RigVeda itself is full of references to fortified cities and towns to oceans sailing trade and industry all of which are found in the Harappan civilization39Ruins of Mohenjodaro Vedic altars found in these sites reaffirm that the culture followed in these sites extending from PakistanIran border in the West to Uttar Pradesh in the East and Kashmir in the North to Godavari in the South was a part of Vedic cultureSimilarly thoughts are echoed by David Frawley the director of the American Institute of Vedic Studies in the article The Myth of Aryan Invasion 39The term 39Destroyers of cities39 was used to disregard the Vedic as a primitive nonurban culture that destroys cities and urban civilization However there are also many verses in the 39Rig Veda39 that speak of the Aryans as having having cities of their own and being protected by cities upto a hundred in number Destruction of cities also happens in modern wars this does not make those who do this nomads The idea of Vedic culture as destroying but not building the cities is based upon ignoring what the Vedas actually say about their own cities39With the new insights available even the nomenclature of the Indus Valley Civilization is no more apt as a majority of sites in later excavations fit perfectly along the banks of the newly discovered course of Saraswati Some scholars have therefore started referring to it as theIndusSaraswati Civilization Indus Valley Seals About this continuity of Indian civilzation Jean Michel Varenne a French Orientalist wrote in his book Yoga and the Hindu Tradition 39The only remaining testimony to the prestigious civilization of ancient Egypt lay buried in archaeological remains which meant that inhabitants of the Nile Valley had to wait for Champollion to decipher their hieroglyphics before they could know anything of the beliefs of their ancestors Yet during all this time Hindu families continued and still continue today to venerate the same Vishnu who is celebrated in the hymns of the Rig Veda39Scholarly endeavors like Indian historian and freedom fighter Bal Gangadhar Tilak39s phenomenal work The Arctic Home in the Vedas French historian Michel Danino39s outstanding research The Lost River On the trail of Saraswati and American Indologist David Frawley39s The Eternal TraditionSanatan Dharma throw new light on ancient Hindu history Other scholars have tried to interpret the Astrological references in ancient literature and have come up with pretty conclusive dates Verse 3115 of the Taitreya Brahman describes Jupiter crossing the Pushya constellation thereby suggesting a date close to 4650 BCESimilarly the Aitreya Brahman gives the date of 6000 BCE while the Rig Veda has references which throw up timeframes close to 10 000 BCE One of the Medieval Islamic scholars Albiruni lists many ancient Indian Astronomers who were well versed with the knowledge of both Spacescience as well as MathematicsBrahmagupta The first man to use Zero Aryabhata The first man to calculate the value of Pie Bhaskar acharya The first man to write numbers in decimal system and Varahamihira The first astronomer to collate Hindu Greek and Roman astronomyOther visitors like HiunTsang FaHien and Megasthenes also left extensive accounts of life and its various nuances in ancient India Indian Empires were biggest in the world at one point of time The actual dates of origin of the Indian civilization may yet be shrouded in the mists of time but help has come from a totally unexpected branch of Science GeneticsAccording to the research findings such as MtDNA Haplogroup Study in Indian Peninsula and the Indian Genome Variation project Indian subcontinent saw the first wave of migration of humanity out of Africa directly into India about 50 000 years ago It was from here that waves of people migrated to other parts of Asia as well as the continents of Europe and AmericaThe results also indicate that there has never been an Aryan Invasion NOR Migration INTO India Our present genetic diversity evolved as waves of initial settlers in the central regions moved towards both north as well as south of the country all the time intermixing and migrating to other countriesI have covered these topics from our History in detail through posts likeFinding River Saraswati Genetics of the Wandering Indian Rama The Historical Perspective Krishna The Historical Enigma Quest for Dwarka andIndia and Bharat The new picture that emerges from this mounting data of evidence is of a continuous stream of Civilizational HistoryBeginning in the Preglacial periods around 40 000 BCE when Humans settled in IndiaDeveloping into a wellestablished culture before the onset of the last Ice Agearound 20 000 BCEContinuing the legacy of the bygone Yuga into postglacial epoch around 10 000 BCEFlowing onwards to develop into the IndusSaraswati and Persian civilizations around 8 000 BCEExperiencing the Golden Age of Ramayan around 7 000 BCEWitnessing the possibly Nuclear War of Mahabharat around 5 000 BCEMaking the transition from Dvapar to Kaliyug around 3 100 BCEFinally witnessing the transition of power from Saraswati to Gangetic basin with the latter becoming the new seat of Hindu thought and learningThe above dates are approximations based on the current dating of scriptures and archeological finds and may yet be revised if new evidence comes to light It is time we as Humanbeings realize and accept our ancient History so that we can be ready to Embrace our Destiny Let us together Begin at the Beginning Aum Shanti Shanti Shanti